Oregon truckers file suit against state

Rob Freres, president of Oregon-based Freres Engineered Wood, a manufacturer of lumber, veneer, plywood and mass timber, has thrown in his support for a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Trucking Assn. and three Oregon-based trucking companies against the state of Oregon for overcharging truckers under the weight-mile tax.

“For decades, Oregon trucking companies, the vast majority of which are small, family-owned businesses, have paid far more than their fair share of transportation taxes,” Freres writes in a company blog. “By 2025, the trucking industry is expected to have overpaid by half a billion dollars. Trucking companies in Oregon simply cannot sustain paying the highest transportation taxes of any state in the country any longer.”

Oregon Trucking Assn., Combined Transport, A&M Transport and Sherman Bros. Trucking filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon, the Oregon Dept. of Transportation, Gov. Tina Kotek, Senate President Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego) and House Speaker Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis). The lawsuit claims that the state’s weight-mile tax is unconstitutional by forcing truckers to pay more than their fair share.

At the center of the lawsuit is Article IX, section 3a of Oregon’s constitution, which “ensures that the share of revenues paid for the use of light vehicles, including cars, and the share of revenues paid for the use of heavy vehicles, including trucks, is fair and proportionate to the costs incurred for the highway system because of each class of vehicle.”

According to the lawsuit, truckers have been paying “an ever-increasing and disproportionate share” of the state’s road revenue. Under the same section of the Oregon constitution, the state must submit a Highway Cost Allocation Study every two years. That study determines the proportionate share that heavy and light vehicle users should pay.

According to the 2023-25 Highway Cost Allocation Study, truckers are being overcharged by the weight-mile tax as a proportion of road use.

“Under existing tax rates and fees, light vehicles are projected to underpay their responsibility by 12.2%,” the study states. “Heavy vehicles are projected to overpay by 32.4% during the next biennium.”

The last three studies have concluded that truckers in Oregon are overpaying. Despite the study results, the state has continued to collect road taxes without adjusting for equitability between vehicle types.

“Oregonians deserve safe roads, and Freres Engineered Wood is willing to pay our fair share—as required by Oregon’s constitution—as long as Oregon Department of Transportation keeps up its side of the agreement,” Freres writes. “But, to date, major road improvements have not been completed, road maintenance has been delayed, and our roads are less safe for passenger vehicles and trucks. Meanwhile, trucking companies are forced to pass astronomical tax rates on to consumers, who end up paying more for household goods.”

Freres points out that Oregon is the last state in the country to collect taxes based on weight and miles. All other states collect fuel taxes to fund roads. “It’s overdue for Oregon to eliminate the administrative cost of collecting weight mile taxes and move to a fairer fuel tax,” Freres says. “If you are able, consider contributing to the Oregon Trucking Association’s Legal Fund.”

The issue is not lost on some state lawmakers. Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany. “As a proud owner of a family-operated trucking business myself, I fully support the Oregon Trucking Association’s lawsuit against the state of Oregon for overpayment of weight-mile taxes. Our trucking businesses have been paying far more than our fair share of highway taxes for too long. By 2025, that number will total half a billion dollars in overpayments. I urge my colleagues in the Legislature to consider future opportunities to resolve this injustice.”

The lawsuit claims that the Legislative Assembly “failed to comply with its constitutional obligations.” The Oregon Trucking Assn. is asking the court to declare the defendants violated the constitution by not making mandatory weight-mile tax adjustments. Furthermore, the lawsuit seeks to stop the “unconstitutional” weight-mile tax from taking effect in 2024 and for the state to conduct an immediate review and adjustment of revenue sources.

Plaintiff trucking companies also are seeking to recover the amount of weight-mile tax they have overpaid. Between those three companies alone, that amount comes to nearly $1 million.

“For far too long, Oregon trucking companies have paid far more than their fair share of transportation taxes,” Oregon Trucking Assn. CEO Jana Jarvis said in a statement. “By 2025, the trucking industry is expected to have overpaid by half a billion dollars. Trucking companies in Oregon simply cannot sustain paying the highest transportation taxes of any state in the country any longer.”

The lawsuit was filed in the Douglas County Circuit Court in the state’s 16th Judicial District in Roseburg.

“We initiated this lawsuit not because we don’t want to be paying taxes, but because we simply want to pay our fair share,” said Andy Owens, CEO and manager of A&M Transport. “Since 2022, we have paid over $292,000 more in taxes than we should have, based on the findings of the state’s own Highway Cost Allocation Study. Not only is the overpayment not sustainable for a family business like ours, it’s in violation of Oregon’s constitution.”

The other plaintiffs, Combined Transport Inc. of Central Point, contends it overpaid by $470,619 in taxes from Jan. 1, 2022 to the present, and Sherman Bros. Trucking of Harrisburg was overcharged $153,198 in taxes during the same time.

According to the Oregon Trucking Assn., the state constitution requires that the tax rate paid by trucks be “fair and proportionate to the costs incurred for the highway system because of each class of vehicle.” However, for at least the last six years, the state’s trucking companies have been forced to pay more than a third of all taxes owed by Oregon motorists despite trucks representing only 15% of vehicle miles traveled in the state.